Microsoft to go 100 Percent Carbon Neutral

Microsoft to go 100 Percent Carbon Neutral:

On top of becoming entirely carbon neutral, Microsoft is also looking into making its Redmond, Wash. campus more energy efficient, saving the company $1.5 million next fiscal year. Photo: Microsoft

One of the world’s largest corporations is about to make a huge swing toward going green.
Just over a month remains for software giant Microsoft to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by July 1.
Earlier this month, CEO Kevin Turner posted on the company’s official blog that Microsoft pledges to make all direct operations carbon neutral – including data centers, air travel, offices and software labs – at the beginning of the 2013 fiscal year, which begins in July.
“Working on the issues of energy use and environmental change provides another opportunity to make a difference in the world. It’s the right thing to do. And it’s also an opportunity to promote positive change, as the world transitions to new ways of using energy and managing natural resources,” Turner writes.
More Corporate Sustainability: Green from the Top
Every Microsoft business will now be responsible for the carbon they create, which means increasing purchases of renewable energy. The company will place a price on carbon for each of its sub-sectors in 100 countries, based on the price of carbon offsets and renewable energy. Each business will be financially responsible for doing their part to offset carbon emissions.
Microsoft will purchase carbon offsets for any emissions they can’t completely eliminate.
“We believe climate change is a serious challenge requiring a comprehensive and global response from all sectors of society. This carbon charge-back model is one way we seek to both reduce our impact and test new approaches which we hope are broadly useful for other organizations,” the company says on its blog.
Microsoft will also pilot a greener buildings initiative for their Redmond, Wash. campus to make its building more energy efficient, which is projected to save the company $1.5 million in the upcoming fiscal year.
CarbonSystems, a supplier of sustainability software that has overseen similar initiatives at Canon, Fuji Xerox, IGA and other companies, will keep Microsoft in check as it checks up on the software company’s environmental data and identifies how it could be run more efficiently.
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